Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Take Consistent Action to Achieve Your Goals

Are you taking consistent action to meet your
writing or marketing or publishing goals? In the first place, do you have a
goal or dream? If so, are you writing down the goal then taking consistent
action to achieve it? Last week I was at Author 101 University
in Los Angeles. This life-changing event happens twice a year. Each time I meet
new authors and also reconnect with some of my publishing colleagues. Several of
these colleagues who are active in the publishing community also want to write
books. As a part of our conversation, I make a point to ask them about the book
and see if they are making progress. Yes, they still want to write the book but
have been consumed with other things so their book writing has taken a backseat
and hasn't been happening. I'm empathetic about their situation of trying to
write a book in the middle of other business. Then I encourage them to be
writing their book in small pieces—even 200 words a day can add up to become a
completed book. It will only happen if you take consistent action to
achieve this goal.At the event, I met a new writer who was enthused
about building her presence in
the market and using different tools like Twitter. She was aware of the
frequency of my tweets and that I was providing excellent content on a
consistent basis. How did she know? This writer had set her phone to beep
every time I sent a tweet. I've written a number of articles in The Writing Life about the
different tools and methods I use
for my social media. It is not time consuming but to grow a large following,
you do have to take consistent action. Every day I'm adding content to my Twitter feed and always
looking for good articles to pass on to others along with my own content. I'm
also consistently growing my own followers and social media presence. Whether
I'm traveling or at home, I regularly work on these areas. The constant effort
pays off and if it doesn't then you stop that action and try something
else.I didn't suddenly have over 150,000 twitter
followers. I've been growing it gradually. I didn't instantly write over 550 customer reviews on Amazon or gain 5,000 friends on
Goodreads. These milestones took place with consistent action.
For this blog, I'm a few articles away from having 1300 different articles. This
large volume of content was built through consistent action.What types of goals or dreams do you have for your
writing and publishing life? Do you want to sell more books? If so, then you
need to be increasing the number of people that you tell about your book. Make
an action plan and then consistently execute that plan so you can achieve your
goals. It does not happen overnight but can happen—provided you take
action.

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Grow Your Writing By Teaching Others

Twice last week I taught about helping authors be
more effective on Goodreads. I
helped some of my colleagues at a local meeting of the American Society of Journalists and
Authors. We brought our laptops and worked on improving our Goodreads tools
right on the spot. I'm still learning about Goodreads and feel like I'm far from
an expert—but I was further along the path than the people I was helping.
Then on Saturday, I spoke about Goodreads again to
the Colorado Author League. There were more people in
attendance during this second session and I helped authors increase their
effectiveness on this significant site which has 40 million registered
participants. From this experience, I want to draw a couple of
principles for you to use in your own writing and publishing life. Teaching Forces You To Know The
DetailsWhile you may have experimented and learned some
things when you create your own work, I have found teaching forces me to return
to the basics and recall my early mistakes and successes. I have to capture the
sequence of steps that I used and write them down. As a part of teaching a workshop on a topic, I
prepare teaching notes and a detailed handout for the participant. It is one
step to gather information but quite another to put it into a format where the
listener can take action and apply the information to their own work. I was
focused on the people who take action and helping them succeed with the
promotion and exposure for their books and writing.Goodreads provides many
tools for authors to help in this effort. It does not happen in a vacuum without
action. It is passive to learn about a topic and gather information. The rubber
meets the road when you begin to do something with this information. You may intellectually understand millions of
people use Goodreads, but if you don't become a Goodreads Author, work on your
profile and use the site, then that knowledge is not being used. I've gained a
much more detailed working knowledge of Goodreads because I taught it twice this
past week to others. You will have the same opportunity as you teach the skills
you learn to others.Teaching Gets You Out With
OthersMost of us spend too much time in our office and
computers alone and not interacting with anyone. Yes we are cranking words into
our computers and sending emails. That process is great but does not get us out
of our office into the world to interact face to face with others. This personal
time with others is important on several levels. It helps you to listen to
others and their ideas and learn what they are writing and working on. Also it
gives you fresh opportunities.When I taught twice about Goodreads, at each
session I made new connections with other speakers and also with participants
who attended the event. We exchanged business cards and emails. When you teach, make
sure you bring business cards. As you meet new people, offer the other person a
business card and at the same time, ask for one from them. Because I initiate
this interaction, I'm often surprised that agents and others only have a few
business cards and I get one of those few exchanges. If you bring plenty of
business cards (which I do), you can make sure to be liberal with your business
cards. Each participant at the event received my handout.
I made a point to include some of my key websites and email information on the
document. Why? Even if I don't exchange business cards with an individual, they
have my information and can easily reach me. It is critical that anyone can
easily reach you.My major point of this article is the teacher
learns more about a particular subject than anyone else. You can grow your
writing life by learning new areas, then teaching it to others. How have you
found this effective in your own writing life?

Sunday, October 18, 2015

Enter My Goodreads Giveaway

Until the final day of October, I will be running a Goodreads Giveaway for two of my most recent books. If you are on Goodreads, I encourage you to go over and enter this contest with just a few clicks. You could be one of the winners—but only if you enter the contest. After you enter the Giveaway, I encourage you to use the social media buttons at the bottom of this post to tell others about it.If you are an author, are you using these Giveaways? The author or the publisher can set them up and they are simple and inexpensive exposure for your books. It doesn't have to be a new book because I've tried it successfully with older books as well.The details are below about my Giveaway:

I wish you all the best with this Giveaway so enter right away while you are thinking about it and use the buttons below to tell your friends about it. The clock is ticking and it will end the final day of October.

Saturday, October 17, 2015

Is Book Publishing Like A Marathon or a Sprint?

Many writers want to publish a book. From my
many years in publishing, I find few of them have thought about whether the
process of publishing a book is like a sprint (something with a burst of speed)
or a marathon (steady and consistent to complete the task). I often see authors
who want to sprint to publication or sprint to get a book contract or a bestseller.
Reality is that often it takes consistent, hard work to produce anything of
excellence—the writing or the marketing. Authors are not overnight successes but
instead spend years in the trenches faithfully working to get their work noticed
and sold. This week a young author outside of the U.S.
wrote and asked if a decision had been made on his manuscript. It had been less
than two weeks since I had corresponded with this author and it took a number of
emails until he gave me what I needed to submit his work. I told this author if
he wants a “no, thank you” then I could do that right away but if he wants a
“yes” with a publishing contract then that takes patience and time. While there are many keys in book publishing, in
this article, I want to emphasize four important areas.You Need A Great
ProductToo many authors want to dash off something
and rush it into the marketplace. I've seen it in my own work and the work of
others. Haste often makes waste or mistakes. Take the time to write an excellent
book or book proposal. The book proposal is
your business plan for your book—whether you are writing nonfiction or
fiction—whether you are self-publishing or traditional. You need a plan and it
is important to build the plan with a great manuscript. The writing has to be
excellent. You need others to affirm that excellence before rushing it to the
market. The devil is in the details. Are all of the details in place for your book
before you take it to the marketplace? Does it have a great title? Does it have
an attractive cover? Does the first page make me want to turn to the second
page? Does the copy on the back cover, draw me to going to the cash register?
This week I was a full-color children's book which had no descriptive
information on the back cover. Yes it had a barcode and the name of the
publisher but nothing to draw me to buy the book. It is a huge omission and
lowers the standard for this product. Don't make these basic errors because you
are eager to get your book to the market.You Need to Build an
AudienceYou've poured a lot of energy and effort into your
book. Will you have readers or people who want to read your work—and who are
excited about it that they tell others? When someone tells another person about
a book, that is called “Word of Mouth.” It is golden when it happens and takes
work from the author. As an author you can't lean on your publisher to market
your book and build your audience. You have to take your own responsibility for
marketing your own book. I understand the reluctance—and I've been there too but
I tell every author as an acquisitions editor at Morgan James that they have 80%
of the responsibility. Our publishing house will sell the book into the
bookstores but all of those books can be returned if the author doesn't promote
their book.

I have much more detail and many more ideas
in Platform Building
Ideas for Every Author which is free (just use the
link). You Need to Have
PatienceThe majority of book publishing is not quick.
You send your material to editors and agents yet do not get a response or
receive a response months after your submission. The reality is that it takes
time to build consensus among colleagues to issue a book contract or to make a
contract offer to publish. As a writer you want to follow-up and make sure the
editor or agent received your material and everything is in process. But in
contrast, you do not want to push because most of the time when you push, you
will nudge that professional toward sending you a polite “no thank you.”
Instead of pushing for a decision, you are
better to begin another project. Write a one page query letter for a magazine article. Pitch a magazine
editor to assign you to become a columnist. Begin a new book project or
book proposal. This effort will
remove your focus on the project which is under
consideration.You Need to Have More Than One
ProjectIf you have more than one proposal or one
book, you will be less anxious about the submission and be able to shift your
focus to the new project or new writing assignment. It will increase your own
productivity in the writing world. Recently I was interviewed on this topic of
productivity. I encourage you to listen to Productivity in Writing on the Northern Colorado Writers
Podcast. It's about a 35 minute session about how to become more productive
as a writer.

How do you view book publishing? As a
marathon or a sprint? I'd love to have your comments or any other way I can help
you with this process. As an acquisitions editor, I'm
constantly looking for good books to publish. Don't hesitate to contact me and
my work contact information is on the second page of this
link.

Thursday, October 08, 2015

New Billy Graham Book Is Focused on Heaven

At the age of 96 (soon to be 97), Billy Graham does
a lot of thinking about heaven and eternity. The title from WHERE I AM is unusual and comes
from John 14:1-3 but also a statement, Mr. Graham proclaimed after his 95th
birthday saying, “When I die, tell others that I’ve gone to my Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ—that’s where I am.” I purchased a copy of this new book last week
when it released in the bookstores and then I read every chapter before I wrote
or published anything about it. Many times I see people writing a review or
thoughts about a book which reveals they haven't read the book. It lessens your
credibility if you write such things in my view. I always read the books that I
review.All 36 chapters in this well-written book are
crafted from different sermons that Mr. Graham has preached about heaven. The
chapters start with Genesis and cover the entire scope of the Bible through
Revelation. I was fascinated with the contents and especially Chapter 24
RIGHTEOUSNESS FOREVER, The Everlasting Foundation (about 1st and
2nd Corinthians), where Mr. Graham writes in the opening, “Staying
youthful was always a goal of mine. Nothing in me was attracted to old things,
not even to my wife’s beloved antiques. When I was young, I could not imagine
being old. I had an unusual amount of energy, and it followed me into young
adulthood. When middle age set in, I dealt with physical weariness, but my mind
was always in high gear, and it never took long for my physical stamina to
return after a grueling schedule. I fought growing old every way I could,
faithfully exercising and pacing myself as I began to feel the grasp of Old Man
Time. This was not a transition I welcomed, and at one point I began to dread
what I knew was coming.” (Page 177-178) Like the rest of the book, this chapter
focused on eternity and that as Christians we will spend eternity in
heaven.I found reading this book fascinating and encourage
every Christian to marvel at how the theme of eternity and heaven is woven into
the fabric of every book in the Bible. I highly recommend WHERE I AM.W. Terry Whalin is the author of BILLY GRAHAM, A
BIOGRAPHY OF AMERICA’S GREATEST EVANGELIST learn more at: http://BillyGrahamBio.com